Nightmares
by Kalira69
Summary: Soothing childish nightmares brings up a vampire's fears. (Featuring wee!Sho. Mostly fluff.)


Originally written for a prompt from a challenge set.

* * *

Kei came awake to the touch of a warm, small hand on his arm, and startled only slightly - he was becoming used to having the three children around him, now, though only Sho was so free with his space.

He turned over to find the boy leaning over him, just a little bit, and thought about scolding Sho for coming so close to him while he was sleeping - it could have been a risk, if Kei had woken poorly.

"Sho?" Kei asked, his voice slightly rough with sleep. "Is something wrong, little one?"

Sho shook his head, and Kei frowned, propping himself up on one elbow, wondering if it was a lie, though Sho's eyes were dry and calm, and his heartbeat only slightly elevated.

Kei's eyes wandered down to Sho's throat without his conscious direction, picking up the tiny, almost imperceptible flutter of his pulse beneath the delicate skin. Kei's jaw ached slightly, stretching all the way up behind his cheekbones, and he swallowed absently.

Then he tensed, swallowing hard against the sudden thickness in his throat, and clenched his jaw. No. _No._

"Are you sure?" Kei asked, his voice barely even, smiling a little bit and shifting to sit up properly. "Nothing is bothering you?"

Sho shook his head again, his mouth and jaw set mulishly, and Kei sighed, knowing how intractable the boy could be at times. He reached out to clasp Sho's shoulder reassuringly, and was only a little bit surprised when the child nearly crumpled beneath the touch, his façade easing as he moved to squash himself close to Kei.

"K- Kei?" Sho said, in a tiny voice, his head bowed and leaning against Kei's chest.

"Yes." Kei said, knowing what Sho was going to ask.

"Can- Can I-" Sho swallowed and looked up at Kei helplessly, almost whining, his eyes big and imploring.

"Yes." Kei said, hiding his sigh, shifting away from Sho a little - making room for his little one at his side. Sho smiled slightly and wriggled up close, snuggling against Kei's side as he lay back down, clinging to the vampire's cool body without any apparent sign of discomfort at the unnaturalness of it.

Kei could never resist Sho's valiant attempts to be stoic, and his beseeching eyes, especially knowing that his brother . . . well, Shinji might have tried to soothe Sho's childish nightmares, as unsympathetic as he was, but he never woke in the night. Sho didn't seem to have figured out that Kei would never turn him away, though, and was always hesitant as well as embarrassed to ask for this comfort from Kei.

Kei sighed and resituated himself, wrapping an arm around Sho's skinny shoulders, the boy's head resting close to his shoulder. Sho made a small, sleepy sound of contentment and snuggled himself closer, one hand splaying over Kei's chest.

Kei closed his eyes, every breath bringing the sweet scent of Sho's sleepy contentment to his nose. As he drifted back towards sleep, comforted in turn by the warmth and fearless affection of the small body pressed against his, a deeply-buried part of him came awake.

Kei's mind filled with the slow throb of Sho's heart, like a drumbeat in his head, echoing and all-consuming, and even as Kei yawned, he felt his fangs sliding as though about to extend, and hummed.

Then he startled himself all the way awake, panting, and hugged Sho against him hard - he softened his embrace after a moment, with a soothing, apologetic murmur, trembling.

 _No_. Kei told that darker part of himself firmly. No. He would _never_ step over that line, he would never allow himself to even _contemplate_. . .

Not Sho. Not ever.

Kei's eyes pricked with tears as he bit at the inside of his cheek, pushing back against the hunger and the temptation of Sho's fluttering heartbeat.

He gently kissed Sho's brow, and couldn't help a sad smile when Sho mumbled his name, the boy still sleeping, content that he was safe in Kei's arms.

And he would be, always, to the best of Kei's ability to protect his little one. Kei closed his eyes, drawing a deep breath, Sho's scent and his heartbeat nearly becoming Kei's entire world once more. Kei shoved against that dark place inside him where everything that made him _vampire_ slunk in the shadows, imprinting there, yet again, that Sho was _never_ to be harmed.

Sho was his to protect and to comfort and to love, and he would never feel Kei's fangs.


End file.
